The WA Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) and Oxford University spin out organization Oxitec are all set to experiment the adequacy of a genetically modified medfly.
They trust this new breed can offer food producers some assistance with combating a pest which damages up to 15 percent of fruit crops. It is estimated that between $10-14 million is spend on checking these pests every year.
The new method includes scientists’ embeddings two genes into the medfly, a self-constraining gene which keeps female posterity from surviving until conceptive age and a fluorescent track-and-follow marker.